Article by Ana Alvarenga de Castro written for the WIDE+ newsletter
This article reflects on the current tendency in many peasant communities of more women taking responsibility for food production while still facing the lack of access to natural resources. The lack of land, food and of access to natural resources literally undermines women’s (or other subjugated genders’) autonomy. Not coincidently, women in rural communities have usually taken leadership positions in political organization defending their livelihoods against land grabbing and environmental depletion caused by high polluting activities and performed by transnational corporations, as well as setting up self-organized groups fighting against gender violence and inequalities. They are juxtaposed to global developments of the patriarchal-capitalist rationality translated into neo-liberal approaches that is heading natural resources’ and labor’s exploitation, especially in the Global South, as a process of so called neo-extractivism (or neo-colonialism, in some points of views). The author concludes that it must be clear that women fight for their rights and autonomy in a society that tries to subjugate them, not because they are essentially connected to nature or are ready to serve the societies with their care and reproductive role.
Download or read the article: food_sovereignty_womenstruggles